Helping organizations use XR & AI to Scale Emotional Understanding and Resiliance
Emmy-nominated changemaker translating the power of AI and VR/Founder, CEO/Speaker/Author; Winner, Best VR/AR, Mobile World Congress; Finalist, SXSW Innovation Award; Featured: NY Times, NPR
Meet Cortney
Cortney Harding is an in-demand expert in helping businesses harness the power of artificial intelligence, spatial computing, and virtual reality. She has created AI-powered conversational avatars for companies like Amazon, the NIH, and Verizon, and virtual reality training scenarios around topics like child abuse, workplace exclusion, mental health, Black maternal mortality, and racial bias for companies like Lowe’s, Walmart, PWC, Target, and more. She routinely leads workshops for Fortune 100 companies and universities on how to use AI and VR in education and training.
Her work has been honored on numerous occasions. As an executive producer on JFK Memento, she was nominated for an Emmy and the piece won the audience award for best XR at SXSW and Best in the World at the QLD XR Festival. Her work has also been honored as the Best VR/AR of 2019 at Mobile World Congress, a SXSW Innovation Award Finalist, and a Top HR Product by HR Executive.
She is currently a member of the Fast Future Executive faculty and a co-author of the "Fast Future Blur" (Wiley, 2024). She has taught at CalTech, NYU, Barnard, North Carolina State University, and New Mexico State University, as well as co-writing and co-teaching the Coursera course "What is the Metaverse?" on behalf of Meta. She is currently finishing “The Spatial Race,” due to be released in fall 2025 on Fast Future Executive Books.
Cortney has spoken at numerous conferences, including Davos, SXSW, Mobile World Congress, and Augmented World Expo, as well as corporate clients like Meta, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola.
“One of the smartest and most future-focused AI and VR speakers I have ever seen!”
– Fortune 100 CMO
Book Cortney as a Speaker
Talks about #training, #virtualreality, #extendedreality, #augmentedreality, and #artificialintelligence
How often have you read that every company needs a VR and AI strategy no matter their intent to jump in full force or quietly sit back to see what their competitors are doing? There is a great deal of conversation around this topic, yet few tangible guideposts for companies to follow. Certainly the time has come for leaders to adjust their mindset and embrace what the journey to this new frontier will look like, while having a full understanding of the pitfalls that could confront them and the myths that have already been sounded.
As a global thought leader, published author, and leading authority on emerging technology and the role of virtual and augmented reality and artifical intelligence, Cortney Harding is considered a future-facing architect of change as she has a full understanding of what challenges and opportunities exist.
Cortney has worked with…
Are you Ready for the AI and VR Revolution?
Myths and Realities of the New Frontier
We’re no longer heading toward the future, we’re immersed in it. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) are rapidly reshaping how we work, learn, connect, and create. Understanding these technologies isn’t just about keeping up with trends, it’s about preparing for a fundamental shift in how we experience the world.
Machines can write code, design presentations, and make data-driven decisions. The competitive edge is no longer efficiency, it’s emotional depth. As workplaces become more digitized and less predictable, what we need aren’t just roles trained for routine, but minds trained to lead through uncertainty, complexity, and discomfort. AI and XR solve this by allowing people to learn how to have difficult conversations at scale in a realistic environment.
Cortney Harding has been building on the bleeding edge of technology for years, helping shape and implement projects at companies like Amazon and institutions like the National Institutes of Health. She focuses on solving real and measurable problems and making sure that humans are always at the center of her designs.
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